I can never forget the first article I read about morning watch. Its title was “Plan the Year Early in Spring, and Plan the Day Early in the Morning.” The writer of the article said that morning is the most precious time, and that the best way to spend the morning is to have morning watch. Of course, a formal morning watch will not avail much. The true morning watch is one in which you take the Word of the Lord as the Lord Himself, and fellowship with Him face to face through His Word.
Sometimes when you have your morning watch, you try to hurry a little because you want to be on time to go to work. Under such a circumstance you would give inadequate attention to your reading and prayer. At other times you may not be in a hurry, but you may use your time to read in a light way and talk to each other. Neither of the above practices is good. If while you are reading the Word of the Lord, your spirit is not exercised and you do not take the words you read as the Lord Himself, your morning watch is not right. Whether you are having morning watch by yourself or with a few others, a principle must be kept: whenever you come to read the word of the Bible, you should regard it as the Lord Himself.
The Lord’s Word is the Lord Himself (John 1:1). If you write me a letter, it is one thing for me to receive your letter, and it is another thing for me to talk to you face to face with the letter in my hand. When we come to the Bible, we should have the attitude that we are coming to the Lord with His Word in our hand, taking the Word as Himself. We are not merely reading His Word; we are coming to talk to Him, and to let Him speak to us. This is the way to make the Word of the Lord living to us.
The Bible is not a secular book. The words of the Bible do not originate from the human mentality. The Bible is the breath of God; that is, it is God Himself. This does not mean that we worship the Bible as an idol. We need to realize that the words of the Bible are God Himself. Whenever you read the Bible, God speaks to you there. You should not read the Bible merely with your eyes; neither should you merely memorize or understand it with your mind. You must pray-read it with your spirit (Eph. 6:17-18a). In other words, you must mingle your reading with prayer. Prayer is your communication with the living Lord. While you pray-read in this way, you are converting the words of the Bible into your prayer. In the end, you are not merely reading the word of the Lord; you are speaking to the Lord with His word. This is the proper way to fellowship with the Lord. This kind of pray-reading is most helpful to us. For this reason, every time we have our morning watch, we should have the deep sense that we are there to speak to the Lord and to have the Lord speak to us.
The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation shows us that the word of God is living. Paul told us from his experience that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). The word “breathe” in Greek is a strong word. In translating 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible translators were not bold enough. The translators of the King James Version rendered the first part of 2 Timothy 3:16 as “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The New American Standard Version renders this phrase as “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Actually, neither of these renderings is accurate. The accurate translation should be, “All Scripture is God-breathed.”
The words of the Bible are different from all the words of the great ethical teachers in the world. All their writings were produced from their minds; their whole being was not involved. When a person speaks in a refined way, most of his speaking is probably a pretense. It is only when he loses his temper and speaks out of his anger that his words are not pretentious. The word of God is His breath. It comes directly from God; there is no pretense whatever. God is Spirit (John 4:24), and God is life (1 John 5:20). Whatever comes out of God is, of course, also spirit and life. This is why the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63b).
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” In the past I did not understand this verse. To me this was as strange as someone telling me, “Let the rice get into you and dwell in you.” Only recently my eyes were opened and I began to realize what Paul was saying. Paul considered the word of Christ as a person. To Paul, the word of Christ is the same as Christ Himself. If I were to visit your home, when I knocked on the door, you would let me in. But how could we speak of letting some rice come in? No matter how much we let the rice in, the rice will never come in, because rice is not a living person. If someone were to place a desk and two chairs at your front door, and you were to open the door to let the desk and chairs come into your study and dwell there, you would never see those pieces of furniture come spontaneously into your house. This is because they have no life; they are not living. But when a living person knocks at your door and waits there, you can let him come in.
The word of Christ is living. It is like a living person. You must let this word come in and dwell in you. The word of Christ has been waiting outside for a long time; it is not far from you. Because of this, you can let this word come in. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” This verse proves first that the word of Christ is living. Second, it shows that this word is very near to you; it is even waiting at your doorstep. Whenever we come to read the Lord’s Word, we need to realize that the Lord’s word is not only living; it is a living Person, the Lord Himself, who is waiting to come into us and dwell in us. For us to come to the Word of the Lord is to come to the Lord Himself.